June is Lipedema Awareness Month, and spreading awareness has been a passion of mine for the last eight plus years.
One of the most amazing, yet unsuspected, developments I have seen in that time, is a fierce community that has grown out of all the strong patients, advocates, medical professionals, and vendors, who are equally as passionate about spreading awareness, and finding answers, as I am.
It is amazing to go from feeling so alone, upon first learning (or suspecting) you have Lipedema, to feeling part of a thriving community, spreading not only awareness, but hope.
Juzo is one of those vendors, part of our Lipedema community, and has been a big part of my self-care routine since I was first diagnosed with Lipolymphedema (stage 3 Lipedema, with secondary Lymphedema) in 2007, when I was fitted for their Dynamic Graduated Compression knee highs.
So what is Lipedema?
Up until recently, we were told it was a painful fat disease. It was unlike regular fat; it was nodular, painful to the touch, and did not seem to reduce with diet or exercise. In fact, back in 2007 patients were being told exercise could make our symptoms worse, and we were advised not to.
Fast forward to today when we are being told Lipedema is a Loose Connective Tissue (LCT) disease. It is still painful, nodular, and fibrotic tissue, just more accurately classified (you can check out the recent publication of the “Standard of care for Lipedema in the United States”, written by several of the medical professionals I mentioned earlier, that make up our Lipedema community).
Another wonderful thing to come out of the Lipedema community is understanding exercise is actually good for us, really good!
It has become a key part of Lipedema self care, to hopefully slow down our progression, and help us to keep our mobility as long as possible. And the amazing part of that realization, is that it happened because of the strong patients who took a stand, and started experimenting with various exercises, and ways of moving, to figure out what works (and what doesn’t), and then they shared with others in the community. We changed how Lipedema is being treated.
I mentioned above that Juzo was a big part of my self-care routine since day one of my diagnosis, but they are more than just the manufacturer of my compression. They are part of the Lipedema community.
They reached out to me a couple years ago asking how they could help spread awareness for Lipedema. They had seen the Lipedema Triathlon I created, and offered to sponsor our participant shirts!
This year they reached out again, not only did they want to sponsor the participant shirts this year (it will be our 6th Annual Lipedema Triathlon on June 26), but they asked if I had any other ideas how they could help.
A fun idea popped into my head, I said what about a monthly live box opening? They could send me some of the Juzo products, I would open it live on my Instagram page, give a product review, and then we could offer a giveaway, where someone would win the product I just reviewed. They loved it!
It ran from January until May this year, and was a lot of fun, and even though the giveaway is over, there are great videos to go back and review the products. January was the Dynamic knee highs, and included all the fun color swatches you can get them in! You can watch them all on the @lipedemafitness IGTV page.
Thank you Juzo! Not just for making great compression, but for being such a caring part of our Lipedema Community.
Read more about Pattie’s story and her wonderful advocacy efforts for others living with lipedema. Be to follow us on Instagram, @JuzoCompression and Facebook to learn more about Juzo products and resources. Sign up for special offers and Juzo news.